UK Credit Card Payoff Planner (2026)

APR is on your monthly statement or app. Don't use the "purchase rate" if you're carrying a balance from a 0% period that's expired — use the current post-deal APR.

Check your T&Cs — "% + interest" is the UK default. The value represents the % component (typically 1).

Don't enter what you'd like to pay — enter what your budget actually leaves after rent, food, bills and essential savings. Look at last 3 months of bank statements.

Check best-buy tables on MoneySavingExpert/Which? — typical offers are 18–24 months at 0% with 2.9–3.5% fees. Enter the real fee and duration of an offer you'd actually apply for.

The chart shows balance over time under each strategy. Three strategy cards compare payoff months, interest and total paid.

If your fixed-payment strategy clears the card BEFORE the break-even month shown, don't transfer. If after, transfer and keep paying the same fixed amount to clear it within the 0% period.

The FCA's 2018 persistent-debt rules force UK issuers to intervene when minimum payments result in more interest/fees than principal reduction over 18 months. At 18 months: warning letter offering repayment options. At 27 months: reminder. At 36 months: mandatory repayment plan (typically a 3–4 year fixed plan), and the card can be suspended or closed if you don't engage. The scheme has pulled millions out of minimum-only cycles but is limited by consumer disengagement — one in three recipients ignore all three letters.

The fee is charged on the transferred balance and added to the new card's balance. At 3% on £3,500 transferred, you start with a £3,605 balance. During the 0% period, payments go 100% to principal. At 0% expiry, the standard APR (typically 20–28%) applies to the remaining balance. The "fee" is really a prepayment of ~3 months' normal interest — so the transfer only wins if you use the zero-rate window to clear significantly faster than you would have on the original card.

Post-2011 FCA reforms require minimum payments to cover at least the interest, fees, 1% of the outstanding balance, AND any amount of your outstanding balance that exceeds your credit limit. Issuers vary around this floor: some use flat-rate minimums (MBNA: 2.25% of balance), some use formulaic (Barclaycard: 1% + interest/fees, £5 floor). The "greater of" option in this tool models the formulaic approach which is typical for UK mainstream issuers post-2011.

Example: three cards, £1,000 at 24%, £2,000 at 20%, £500 at 18%, all clearable within 24 months. Avalanche (highest APR first) while paying minimums on others: saves £180–£230 vs snowball over 24 months. But snowball (£500 card first) clears one whole card in ~5 months vs avalanche's 20 months for the first full payoff — a motivational difference that matters for long-duration plans. The mathematically optimal strategy is avalanche; the behaviourally optimal strategy for most people is snowball.

Pair this with the Household Cashflow Resilience tool to confirm the fixed payment is sustainable, the Buy-to-Let Mortgage Calculator if debt is related to property, and the Mortgage Reality Check if you're carrying card debt into a mortgage application — most UK lenders stress-test affordability assuming you're at 50%+ of card limit regardless of current balance.